


Afternoon Tea

by 100demons



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-09
Updated: 2016-02-09
Packaged: 2018-05-19 06:11:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5956582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/100demons/pseuds/100demons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kakashi and Gai try to figure out what happens next.</p><blockquote>
  <p>“Am I to be your kept woman?” Gai smiled at him, wiping away the tears. "It's not so bad an idea."</p>
  <p>“Does this mean you’ll be demanding silk and gold toilets?” Kakashi squinted at him. “Don’t bankrupt me, I’ve got to be Hokage for at least five years, until Naruto’s really ready. Content yourself with gaudy jewelry and silver toilets.”</p>
</blockquote>
            </blockquote>





	Afternoon Tea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tuesday](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuesday/gifts).



They met at a cafe not too far from the Hokage’s Tower that served cookies shaped like Team Seven’s faces; Gai was already seated at a table on the terrasse outside, munching on Naruto’s spiky yellow hair, a cup of tea in his other hand.

“A little privacy, if you don’t mind,” Kakashi said rather pointedly at the empty space around him. The shadows on the ground shivered, then promptly displaced themselves onto the roof of the cafe, all the better to lurk and assassinate suspicious wayward ninja.

“Thank you,” he said, and slipped through the crowds of people milling around the outside eating area, pulling a chair out for himself at Gai’s table. The cafe had a ramp instead of stairs leading up to the entrance and lovely big aisles, perfect for a wheelchair to maneuver around it. 

“You’re late,” Gai said, pushing a plate of cookies towards him. Remarkably, the baker had managed to exactly recreate Sasuke’s sneer with a bit of icing and food coloring. Kakashi picked it up and happily bit into Sasuke’s head, leaving him without an ear and part of an eyebrow. 

“Had to stop by my flat and change,” Kakashi mumbled, spraying crumb bits everywhere. 

“I do like the wig,” Gai said, with a touch of approval in his voice. “Black’s a nice, youthful color.”

“Yes, but it doesn’t get you the senior citizen discount at the onsen,” Kakashi said, blissfully devouring his cookie. “I’m told I’m quite spry for a man of my looks and age.”

Gai laughed and Kakashi grinned back at him, for once happy that there was no mask to obscure the curve of his mouth.

“So how was the initial meeting with the Council members?”

Kakashi's good mood abruptly disappeared. 

Gai nodded knowingly. “Was it really that bad?”

“Well,” Kakashi said, “yes. I’m starting to think accepting was a terrible idea.”

“You’ve thought it was a terrible idea since they first brought it up when the Sandaime passed,” Gai offered, rubbing his face with a bandaged hand. “It’s only that this time they succeeded in guilting you into it.”

“And only because they used Naruto,” Kakashi muttered, reaching out and swiping Gai’s cup of tea. “They threatened to give the office to him outright and of course he would accept and then of _course_ when he died of overwork and exhaustion, it would be all my fault. I was coerced.”

“I think you’ll do well,” Gai said, his eyes soft and misty with tears. “Can you think of it-- my Rival, the Hokage of Konoha!”

“Ah,” Kakashi floundered, struggling to control his smile and failing spectacularly. It was what he got for getting so used to wearing a mask in public, letting his control over himself rust away. “So, how was the last appointment with Shizune?”

Gai’s smile dimmed only slightly, before returning full-force. “She says I am doing better than expected and my chakra pathways are nearly fully healed.”

“And your leg?” Kakashi asked, frank. 

Gai hesitated for a moment, then shook his head. “No,” he said, finally. “She thinks I’ll be using a mobility aid for the rest of my life.”

The two of them considered this in silence, broken only by a cheerful waitress who refilled Gai-and-Kakashi’s cup of tea and brought them over a fresh plate of cookies, this time filled up with Sakura’s smiling faces, a tiny green diamond glittering in crystal sugar on her tasty forehead.

“Well, that’s not so bad as dying.” Kakashi concluded, snagging one of the cookies. “Which I am mildly grateful for, I suppose.”

Gai laughed again, reaching forward and neatly nicking the cookie out of Kakashi’s hand. “Thank you, dear Rival. I’m not really upset over _that_. I knew that I didn’t have a good chance of coming home, and I have no regrets for what happened in the war. Only, just. I suppose I’m not sure what to do with myself now. I never thought about what I would do Next.”

“Next,” Kakashi echoed thoughtfully as he looked down at Sakura’s edible face, stubbornly clinging to the cup of tea even as Gai made motions to steal it back. “You could… you could maybe become a ninja baker?”

“What?” Gai blinked at him.

“I don’t know,” Kakashi said. “I don’t think I’m the right person to ask about this, Gai. Maybe I should call Sakura up. Her family’s civilian, aren't they?” He racked his brain, trying to think of what Sakura’s parents did. Was her mother a teacher? Her father was some kind of editor at the weekly paper, Konoha Shimbun, which he dimly recalled her explaining during one team dinner or another. 

“I do like cooking,” Gai grinned at him. “People love my Youth Curry, it’s always gone when I bring it around for a potluck or dinner.”

“Oh, yes,” Kakashi said, vividly remembering the literal flames exuding from Gai’s frighteningly bloody red curry. It was considered Kakashi’s job at those events to discreetly put out the flames and flush it down the toilet, if only to spare the unsuspecting. 

“But, I think I’ll take my time. I have the rest of my life to figure that out. Most importantly, I have to find a new place to live.” 

“Ah,” Kakashi said, thinking of Gai’s beloved fourth floor walk up. The building had no elevators, and the bathroom was too narrow to accommodate a wheelchair, let alone the rest of the small flat. “You’ve been there a long while.”

“Nearly fifteen years,” Gai said, a little wistfully. “It was the first place I moved into on my own, with my own money. It was a good place, but with this, I can’t live there any longer.” Gai waved a hand over his lap and the sturdy ninja-proof blue wheelchair he was sitting in. 

“You know,” Kakashi said slowly, thinking of the ramp leading up to the cafe and the red robes of office lying in the back of his closet, where he had hurriedly stuffed it after his meeting with the Council. “You could, maybe… move in with me?”

Gai blinked. 

“I’m the Hokage,” Kakashi said aloud, for the first time. “There’s plenty of room in the Palace and I can remodel the whole place for you. Add some ramps, fix up the bathrooms and add railings, whatever you need. Make it really accessible.”

“I…” Gai said, eyes wide and growing distinctly watery.

“I could probably put the ANBU to work on pulling out that horrible carpet too,” Kakashi mused aloud, sipping at his tea. “I’m the goddamn Hokage, I can do as I like. Maybe I’ll pass a decree ordering the whole village to make it more accessible, you can’t be the only person in a wheelchair having trouble. I’m the damned Hokage, anyway, might as well make use of it,” he said again.

Kakashi looked up, finally noticing the tears streaming down Gai’s face.

“My dear, dear Rival.” Gai clasped his massive hands around Kakashi’s. “I’m deeply honored by your proposal.”

Kakashi flushed deeply. “We’re not getting _married_ exactly,” Kakashi said, squirming a little. “I mean, it’s a little stupid that you haven’t moved in with anyway, you’re always over at my flat. It’s just my place is getting a little bigger, that’s all.”

“Am I to be your kept woman?” Gai smiled at him, wiping away the tears. "It's not so bad an idea." 

“Does this mean you’ll be demanding silk and gold toilets?” Kakashi squinted at him. “Don’t bankrupt me, I’ve got to be Hokage for at least five years, until Naruto’s really ready. Content yourself with gaudy jewelry and silver toilets.”

“I promise,” Gai said, laughing, and then pressed a kiss on their clasped hands. “Thank you, dear Rival. I’m happy to accept.”

Kakashi suddenly leaned forward and kissed Gai, his mouth curving against Gai’s in a soft, sweet smile. “Then let’s find out what happens Next, together.”


End file.
